A very extensive literature exists concerning
the normal bacterial flora of marine fish
species common to the northern ocean areas, i.e.,
the North Sea (Stewart, 1932; Aschehoug and
Vesterhus, 1943; Reay and Shewan, 1949; Liston,
1956, 1957; Georgala, 1958), the North Atlantic
(Reed and Spence, 1929; Gibbons, 1934a,
1934b; Dyer, 1947), and the North Pacific
(Hunter, 1920; Fellers, 1926; Snow and Beard,
1939; Kiser, 1944; Kiser and Beckwith, 1942,
1944; Liston, 1959). These studies of the aerobic
heterotrophic bacterial flora found on a number
of different species of northern ocean fishes
have shown that, while the generic distribution
of the bacteria associated with freshly caught
marine fish may vary quantitatively, the following
genera predominate fairly consisteritly:
Pseudomonas, Achromobacter, Flavobacterium,
and Micrococcus. The genera Proteus, Sarcina,
Bacillus, Corynebacterium, and Serratia are encountered
less often. Some investigators have
discussed the biochemistry of the organisms isolated
from marine fish (viz., Thjotte and Somme,
1943) but most of the physiology and biochemistry
is limited to only a few properties studied
for classifying the microorganisms. A somewhat
more extensive discussion of the anabolic and
catabolic aspects of the bacterial groups found
on North Pacific fish has been given by Colwell
(1961) and Liston and Colwell (1962).